In a relatively short period of time, advances made in the area of enhanced oil recovery, e.g., hydraulic fracturing, have vaulted the United States into its position as the world's leader in natural gas production. In the next few years, the U.S. will likely assume the same status with regard to oil production. This expansion in energy production will be aided by the use of oil field drilling fluids. Such fluids serve a variety of key functions in the oil drilling process, such as removing cuttings from the borehole, cooling and lubricating the drill bit, controlling drilling formation pressures, maintaining wellbore stability, and transmitting hydraulic energy to the drilling bit. Modern drilling fluid design typically incorporates a variety of additives, such as weighting agents, viscosifiers, and lubricants to facilitate the drilling process. Various chemicals have been used as drilling fluid additives. Of these, polyols have been used in a variety of functions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,502 discloses lubricants which are the reaction product of polyols having unconverted hydroxyl groups with branched/linear acids. U.S. Pat. No. 6,632,779 discloses a viscosifier including polyols selected from glycerol, glycols and polyglycols. U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,236,735 and 8,148,305 disclose drilling fluid lubricants containing polyol esters, where the polyol component is an oligoglycerol or alkoxylate of oligoglycerides. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2013/0267445 discloses antifoaming agents for drilling fluids containing polyols having first and second primary hydroxyl groups, such as glycerols. U.S. Pat. No. 7,238,647 discloses drilling fluid additives where polyols such as glycerol, diglycerols, polyglycerides, pentaerythritol, ethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol are used to form partial esters. U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,608,567, 7,677,315, and 7,662,753 disclose degradable surfactants for treating subterranean formations, where a polyol is used as a hydrophilic block of the degradable block copolymer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,082 discloses drilling fluids for improving the osmotic efficiency of shale during drilling containing ethoxylated/propoxylated polyols. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2012/0202723 discloses drilling fluid lubricants containing polyols that comprise poly-hydroxy functional aliphatic alcohols, where the hydroxyl groups are attached to the main chain via methylol moieties. Nevertheless, a continuing need exists for improved oil field drilling fluid additives since these can increase drilling fluid performance and production rates. In particular, a need continues to exist for drilling fluid additives that are based on sustainable technologies. It has unexpectedly been found that polyester polyols provide good performance as a drilling fluid additive or carrier fluid.